In general, there are two types of telephone calls. In the first and most common situation, there is a single calling party and a single called party. In the second type of call, generally referred to as a conference call, a number of parties are connected together.
It is noted that telephone calls are placed to particular telephone numbers (that is to particular telephones) and not to specific individuals. However, to facilitate the explanation of the applicant's invention, herein, the term called party will be used to mean a particular telephone with a particular telephone number and a particular user. That is, as used herein, the term, called party does not refer to an individual; instead it refers to a particular telephone and the user of that particular telephone. Likewise, the term user as used herein refers to an individual that is utilizing a particular telephone handset with a particular telephone number.
Some telephone systems allow a telephone user to place a first call on hold, so that the user can pick up, that is, connect to a second call. In such a situation the party placed on hold either hears nothing or in some systems, the party placed on hold is connected to a unit that provides “hold” music. The user who placed the call on hold is connected to the second call and that user hears nothing more relative to the first call until he switches back to the first call. The user switches back to the first call either because the second call has been terminated or because the second call was placed on hold.
There are many different types of telephone systems in general use that include the type of “hold” function described above. The most widely used type of system is the type of system often referred to as a POTS system (Plain Old Telephone Service) that uses the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). More modern telephone systems use high speed digital protocols such as the technology known as Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) or Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI). Another type of telephone system in widespread use is the cellular type of telephone system that uses a radio frequency communication protocols. More recently, telephone systems that use a Voice over Internet (VoIP) protocol have come into wide spread use. The type of hold function described above has been implemented on substantially all types of telephone systems such as those mentioned above.
The embodiments described below provide a system and method whereby a user has available an expanded number of options that can be employed when a call is placed on “hold”.